Hello @Longpanda
Okay, lets face it...VENTOY is a image file generator, where the file/options is used to create a bootable USB Ventoy drive!
That bootable USB drive is to be populated by the user with their choice of ISO files. After population with ISO files, the Ventoy USB is booted and Ventoy will show the populated ISOs as choice(s) for booting.
VENTOY’s generator come is 3 different choices
I wonder if anyone has come to the rescue to create a user-interface (UI) that looks and operates the same no matter which VENTOY choice is used. That would have the advantage where, from a user’s perspective, no matter which platform the VENTOY program is launched from, it looks the same.
There are several choices which development can make to do this. I rule out WINE for obvious reasons that “under the hood” (so to speak), the system generations utilities are different. Yet there are other choices where the UI can detect its environment and use the proper systems functions for USB generation.
So the UI could take the user selection input via a screen (like Ventoy’s Windows UI) to get the configuration requests from the user and use the proper system environmental commands to generate the USB.
Detecting whether it Windows or Linux is as simple as looking at the PSW or their are other simple commands which will do this no matter which, Linux/Windows/MAC, the running program is on.
This is, maybe, a simple way for VENTOY to go forward where it looks the same no matter which choice the user makes; namely ISO, Windows, MAC, or Linux.
There would become a secondary advantage to such a step. Reduction of webpages since the user perspective would reduce to a single UI. Right now, there are 3 very differently worded sections depending on the choice. This would confuse any user who happens to have Linux, MACs and Windows in their home.
A further benefit is that development ONLY needs to address 1 UI!!! The background programs would handle the rest. Lastly, it would allow the generated options to be included in the 2nd partition of the Ventoy USB so that it become easy to ID a Ventoy that has different options to another, when someone is trying to debug findings and isolate them without getting mixed up. That file could be nameed "Ventoy.conf" or Ventoy.options or Ventoy.built or anything development feels comfortable to be named that shows which options were used to generate the Ventoy USB.
Also, development will ONLY have 1 UI to debug when problems occur vs as it is done today: problem in one, then fixed, then having to go to the other to fix it, then go to the ISO and ... (you get the picture)
Thus simplicity for both development and users, alike.
Thoughts, anyone.
BTW: I have not developed in decades, but I do know that for cross-platform UIs, several choices exist. There exist better people than myself to aid in this for Ventoy.
Okay, lets face it...VENTOY is a image file generator, where the file/options is used to create a bootable USB Ventoy drive!
That bootable USB drive is to be populated by the user with their choice of ISO files. After population with ISO files, the Ventoy USB is booted and Ventoy will show the populated ISOs as choice(s) for booting.
VENTOY’s generator come is 3 different choices
- A Windows program which creates the VENTOY USB
- A Linux program which creates the VENTOY USB
- An ISO which, when it is built upon a CD or DVD or USB or..., it, when booted will run the Linux program to create the VENTOY USB
I wonder if anyone has come to the rescue to create a user-interface (UI) that looks and operates the same no matter which VENTOY choice is used. That would have the advantage where, from a user’s perspective, no matter which platform the VENTOY program is launched from, it looks the same.
There are several choices which development can make to do this. I rule out WINE for obvious reasons that “under the hood” (so to speak), the system generations utilities are different. Yet there are other choices where the UI can detect its environment and use the proper systems functions for USB generation.
So the UI could take the user selection input via a screen (like Ventoy’s Windows UI) to get the configuration requests from the user and use the proper system environmental commands to generate the USB.
Detecting whether it Windows or Linux is as simple as looking at the PSW or their are other simple commands which will do this no matter which, Linux/Windows/MAC, the running program is on.
This is, maybe, a simple way for VENTOY to go forward where it looks the same no matter which choice the user makes; namely ISO, Windows, MAC, or Linux.
There would become a secondary advantage to such a step. Reduction of webpages since the user perspective would reduce to a single UI. Right now, there are 3 very differently worded sections depending on the choice. This would confuse any user who happens to have Linux, MACs and Windows in their home.
A further benefit is that development ONLY needs to address 1 UI!!! The background programs would handle the rest. Lastly, it would allow the generated options to be included in the 2nd partition of the Ventoy USB so that it become easy to ID a Ventoy that has different options to another, when someone is trying to debug findings and isolate them without getting mixed up. That file could be nameed "Ventoy.conf" or Ventoy.options or Ventoy.built or anything development feels comfortable to be named that shows which options were used to generate the Ventoy USB.
Also, development will ONLY have 1 UI to debug when problems occur vs as it is done today: problem in one, then fixed, then having to go to the other to fix it, then go to the ISO and ... (you get the picture)
Thus simplicity for both development and users, alike.
Thoughts, anyone.
BTW: I have not developed in decades, but I do know that for cross-platform UIs, several choices exist. There exist better people than myself to aid in this for Ventoy.
Happy to learn how to ...